Items tagged with Asus

Although Intel has something new coming down the pipeline in the not-too-distant future, Haswell-E and the X99 chipset will remain its flagship, high-performance desktop platform for quite some time. As such, motherboard manufacturers are still pumping out new, fresh designs featuring the X99 chipset. Two of the newest boards to hit the scene come by way of EVGA and ASUS. Both companies just announced fresh micro-ATX motherboards, targeting a couple of different market segments.First up we present the EVGA X99 Micro2. The EVGA X99 Micro2 build upon the original X99 Micro (which we showed you here),...Read more...

We are back with another high-end X99-based motherboard on the test bed. This time around we've got the latest from ASUS, the Sabertooth X99 TUF motherboard, which supports USB 3.1 and sports ASUS' "OC Socket". The first wave of motherboards based on Intel’s X99 chipset launched with attractive features and eye-catching designs. But as time has passed, most motherboard manufacturers have continued to update and optimize their X99-based offerings. ASUS had already offered some stand-out features in its first salvo of boards. This was largely thanks to the company’s OC Socket used on its X99-based...Read more...

AMD has certainly kept our test benches busy lately, with the debut of two Fiji-based flagships, namely the liquid-cooled Radeon Fury X and its surprisingly capable air-cooled little brother, the Radeon Fury. Now it’s time to turn our attention to the Radeon R9 390X, specifically Asus' handsome STRIX offering. Don’t Call It Hawaii! “Rebadge” or “rebrand” are dirty words in the GPU space. Those are words that describe a GPU maker taking an existing architecture, wrapping it up with some new software features, tweaked frequencies, and perhaps updated aesthetics, and presenting it with a shiny bow...Read more...

At long last, the Asus Chromebook Flip C100 is reaching online retailers. The tiny Chromebook has been getting plenty of attention since Asus first began teasing the device earlier this year. Chromebooks aren’t for everyone, but the Flip C100 looks to be (on paper, at least) an attractive choice for people willing to part with the Windows operating system. The Flip C100 is a tiny convertible that can be used in traditional laptop mode, flipped for tablet mode, or propped in stand or tent positions. The 10.1-inch screen is a 1280x800 IPS display with multi-touch support and Asus’ own touch technology,...Read more...

ASUS and AT&T have teamed up to announce the new ZenFone 2E, an affordable smartphone for budget-conscious buyers who want a capable handset without a bloated price tag. While it lacks some of the bells of the whistles of the regular ZenFone 2 (check out our review) and isn't quite as powerful, consumers may find a fair bit of value here at the $120 asking price (on AT&T pre-paid GoPhone plans). Let's start with the specs. The ZenFone 2E bullies into the budget category wielding a 5-inch IPS display with a 1280x720 (HD) resolution (294 ppi). It's powered by a dual-core Intel Atom Z2560...Read more...

Two new Asus tablets hit shelves in the U.S. this week, giving shoppers some interesting (and fairly inexpensive) new options. The Asus ZenPad 7 and ZenPad S 8.0 aren’t available on U.S. version of Asus’ website just yet, but Best Buy already has them for sale online. It appears that neither tablet is available in brick and mortar stores, though you can walk into any Best Buy to order a tablet and have it shipped to your store. One of the ZenPad 7’s most attractive features is its price. Just under $100 gets you a reasonably thin (0.35 inches) tablet running Lollipop. It has an Intel...Read more...

When AMD launched the liquid-cooled Radeon Fury X, we witnessed a company willing to commit to new architecture and bleeding edge technologies (Fiji and High-Bandwidth Memory, respectively). Beyond that, Fury X showed a level of ambition and hardware design chops we hadn’t seen from AMD in years. There’s no denying that between its exceptional thermals and strong performance, Fury X is a force to be reckoned with. However, it fell shy of the mark that enthusiasts and press hoped it would achieve, unable to quite deliver a definitive victory against NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 980 Ti. Today, AMD offers...Read more...

One of the more elegant looking smartwatches on the market is the ZenWatch by ASUS. At this point, the first generation model isn't long for this world as ASUS preps a ZenWatch 2, but if you favor price and bang-for-buck over cutting edge features, now is the time to strike -- Newegg just knocked $50 off the price of the original ZenWatch, bringing the cost of ownership down to $150.That's $200 less than the least expensive Apple Watch, and while that's a bit of an apples to oranges comparison (or Apple to Android), it's something to think about if you're platform agnostic. Yes, the original ZenWatch...Read more...

Well, that didn't take long. When we took a look at ASUS' ZenFone 2 a couple of weeks ago, we found it to be a great phone for the money. It looks great, has a beefy processor, and has one feature too few smartphones do: an Intel SoC. As good as the phone is out-of-the-box, we couldn't blame you if you wanted to go the route so many Android power users do and root the device and unlock its boot loader. Thanks to XDA Developers user ravian29, that's now possible. In order to unlock the device, it needs to be updated to the latest firmware, which is 2.19.40. If for some reason that firmware is not...Read more...

Hot on the heels of the reveal of AMD's Radeon 300 series comes ASUS with four brand-new models that fall into its STRIX series. First seen on the AMD side with the R9 285, STRIX is touted as being ASUS' most effective cooling solution to date, and as someone who's used a STRIX model before, I can attest that the cooler is quite good. Speaking of "hot", there might be a hint to the fact that the 390 and 390X could run quite warm, as these become the first STRIX models to feature three fans - the GTX 980 STRIX has just two. One thing's for certain though; these cards look great. You might have noticed...Read more...

HTC seems rather perturbed at reports suggesting that the company may be acquired by ASUS. Adding fuel to the speculative fire, ASUS Chief Financial Officer David Chang recently confessed that it's a topic that's come up internally at his company. Combined with HTC's recent smartphone slump and backwards adjusted sales forecast, it's easy to see how a merger might make sense, except that HTC adamantly denies the reports. "We strongly deny the news. We didn't contact ASUS and will not consider the acquisition," HTC said in a news release. "As an international brand, HTC will continue to...Read more...

The rate at which the industry is pumping out smartphones these days is staggering. Even more impressive is the rate at which truly outstanding phones are shipping, even from names that weren't significant just a few years ago. BLU, Xiaomi, OnePlus, and ASUS (just to name a few) have all produced handsets in recent months that rival the best offerings from Apple, LG, Samsung, and other historical greats. It signals a shift in the industry where we've reached a certain level of market maturity at the hardware, software and ecosystem level. It's just that much easier to launch a smartphone in market...Read more...

It seems as though you can never take too many selfies, and if Facebook is any indication, the trend is sure to live on for years to come. While most selfies these days are taken with relatively low resolution front-facing cameras on iPhones and their ilk (the iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus feature a 1.2MP front camera), many manufactures are catering to the selfie crowd with higher quality front cameras. ASUS is the latest to step into the fray with its new ZenFone Selfie, and as its name implies, this smartphone will capture every wrinkle in your grinning mug. The ZenFone Selfie features not one, but...Read more...

The original ASUS ZenWatch was originally announced back in September 2014, but the smartwatch market is moving at an incredible clip these days, so the Taiwanese OEM has deemed it necessary to unload a next generation Android Wear model: the ZenWatch 2. While the ZenWatch 2 retains design familiarity with its predecessor, it is now available in two different case sizes (echoing a similar move by Apple with the Apple Watch), which should make it more appealing to both men and women. The larger of the two smartwatches features a 49mm stainless steel case paired with an interchangeable 22mm strap,...Read more...